Language of earth

For the ‘Fête de la Musique 2014′, Alliance Française de Bombay in partnership with Blue Frog and Novotel Mumbai, presented a music concert with French-Haitian singer and composer Joyshanti and Maati Baani, a Mumbai based world music band, together with an eclectic group of talented musicians of international calibre who were invited via an Indo-French collaboration.This concert was held at the Blue Frog in Mumbai ,on 19th June in Mumbai.

Maati Baani

Maati Baani, literally ‘Language of the Earth’, is a world music band that combines elements of rustic folk, sufism, and different genres of world music along with Hindustani classical, funk and new age sounds. With Nirali Kartik for vocals and Kartik Shah on the guitars, keyboards, vocals and electronic Sounds, the band based in Mumbai incorporates a variety of people – collaborations of street musicians, folk artists and top class musicians – from across the world for each song. Having recorded artists on the beaches of Kerala, streets of Delhi, villages in India and cities in Europe, their upcoming video series stars musicians from Europe, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Kutchh in India.

It was an analogous case at BlueFrog on 19th June, 2014, where the band had welcomed 13 musicians of whom was >Dominique Sylvain, >an immensely talented and charismatic artiste, who also dons the name of >Joyshanti> in the world of music to convey to her fans and admirers that she is a messenger of peace and love. She considers herself to be a citizen of the world, the globe to be her home and music her horizon. This French-Haitian chorister who was invited by l’Alliance Française de Bombay, coalesces Afro-Cuban rhythms, crossbred with jazz, blues and soulful lyrics interspersed with Creole refrains. >In inviting Joyshanti and MaatiBaani, l’Alliance Française de Bombay intended to bring out the musical potential of the group, and also rekindle the earlier meeting of Joyshanti with Nirali and Kartik.

They had earlier met Dominique at Amritapuri at Saint Amma’s ashram in Kerala in 2012, where they instinctively connected with one another through music as well as in spirit.After some improvisation, combinations of instruments at Kerala and at Mumbai in their studio, and on location recording at Azheekkal beach (accompanied by strange looks from onlookers), a song: ‘Tore Matware Naina’ was conceptualized. This musical composition was a mélange of French and Hindustani lyrics and was subsequently released in 2012. This song also featured in the movie David (released in 2013). The wordings of this song are in Braj Bhasha (the dialect of Hindustani in the Braj region of Northern India) and are inspired from the works of the poet Shri Laghulaal from Kutchh, while those in French were written by Joyshanti.

Ten days of hardwork of all the musicians eventually led to a successful concert at the Blue Frog before a well-packed audience. Along with Maati Baani and Joyshanti, there were other musicians namely Sarthak Mudgal, Rida Gatphoh, Tony Sebastien, Noormohammed with his wife, Anaar Desai-Stephens, ‘Madari’ Mudgal, Biswajit and Ankita Joshi, as well as manager Everlyn D’Souza and sound engineer Devang Rachh.